Business Pivot Point

Pakistani intelligence gives funding, training and sanctuary to the Afghan Taliban on a scale much larger than previously thought, a report says.

Taliban field commanders interviewed for the report suggested that ISI intelligence agents even attend Taliban supreme council meetings.

Support for the Afghan Taliban was “official ISI policy”, the London School of Economics (LSE) authors suggest.

Pakistan’s military denied the claims.

A spokesman said the allegations were “rubbish” and part of a malicious campaign against the country’s military and security agencies.

The LSE report comes at the end of one of the deadliest weeks for Nato troops in Afghanistan, with more than 30 soldiers killed.

US President Barack Obama has telephoned Japan’s new leader Naoto Kan to congratulate him and to pledge co-operation, amid tensions over a US military base on the island of Okinawa.

Tokyo officials said Mr Kan had promised to make “strenuous efforts” to resolve the issue.

Japan’s previous government resigned after failing to deliver an election pledge to move the US base off Okinawa.

Many residents on the island resent the military presence.

Incidents including the rape of a 12-year-old Japanese girl in 1995 by three US servicemen have inflamed public opinion.

Israel says it will not take part in a conference aimed at achieving a nuclear-arms free Middle East, proposed at a UN meeting in New York.

Nearly 200 nations, signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), backed plans for the meeting in 2012.

In a document agreed at the talks, Israel was singled out for criticism.

Israel, which has not signed the NPT, dismissed the document as “deeply flawed” and “hypocritical”.

The South Korean government is getting ready for a military confrontation with North Korea, and the latter is also getting ready for the military show down. But a closer evaluation of the status of each of these countries would reveal that North Korea may not be able to really fight against the really superior South Korea on any format, be it naval or air or ground war.
And US also is waiting to put it’s weight behind South Korea to use this opportunity to regain the global super power dominance, that is no more with it since the beginning of 2000.
So expect North Korea to act smartly under the special advise of China, and expect an amicable solution to the South Korean ship sinking tussle.

North Korea has announced it will scrap an agreement aimed at preventing accidental naval clashes with South Korea, amid rising tensions over the sinking of a South Korean warship.

The move is in retaliation for Seoul blaming Pyongyang for a torpedo attack that sank the Cheonan in March.

The announcement comes as the South Korean navy conducts a major anti-submarine drill.

An international probe found the Cheonan was sunk by a Northern torpedo.

North Korea has denied the allegation.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been sworn into office again, following his controversial win in last month’s elections.

President Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

Many international leaders stayed away from the inauguration but at least five African presidents attended the event.

The UN said it was sending the heads of the two UN peacekeeping missions in the country to the ceremony.

Taking the oath of office, President Bashir addressed parliament in Khartoum for around 30 minutes.
At the scene
Continue reading the main story
James Copnall
BBC News, Khartoum

President Omar al-Bashir’s supporters, of whom there are many in parliament, shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) when he got up to swear his oath. He appeared sombre and serious.

Inside he was probably smiling. Seven African heads of state attended the ceremony, largely from the neighbourhood.

It gave a touch of prestige to the proceedings, though Western nations were in general represented by locally based diplomats, and sometimes not even the ambassador. In some circles it is not the done thing to be seen in public with a man wanted for alleged war crimes.

President Bashir’s speech concentrated on development priorities, and reassuring old enemies in the south he would respect their choice in next January’s critical referendum. Southern leaders publicly gave the speech a cautious welcome. But their image of the president - like that of the rest of the world - will not have been changed today.
Dream result for President Bashir Profile: Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir

Presidents from Ethiopia, Chad, Malawi, Mauritania, and Djibouti were in the audience.

The US has evidence the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attempted car bombing in New York’s Times Square, Attorney General Eric Holder says.

Mr Holder said the militants helped to facilitate the plot, and “probably helped finance it”.

US officials had previously rejected claims by the group that it was behind the 1 May plot.

A Pakistani-born US citizen has been charged with the attempted bombing in New York’s tourist quarter a week ago.

Faisal Shazhad, 30, from Bridgeport, Connecticut, has co-operated with investigators, and admits receiving bomb-making training in the Pakistani region of Waziristan, prosecutors have said.

The memoir of former US President George W Bush will be a candid account of his “flaws and mistakes” as well as his achievements, his publishers said.

The book, Decision Points, will offer “never-before-heard detail” on some of the key events of Mr Bush’s presidency, Crown Publishers announced.

Due for release in November, the book also covers Mr Bush’s family life.

The former Texas governor left office in 2009 with one of the lowest presidential approval ratings ever.

Correspondents say his legacy has been damaged by unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the global financial crisis.

The twin brother of Poland’s former president, who was killed in a plane crash in Russia this month, says he will run to be elected in his place.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski said he would stand in the 20 June presidential election despite his “personal pain”, in order to continue his brother’s mission.

Lech Kaczynski was killed in a plane crash in western Russia on 10 April, along with many Polish dignitaries.

The two brothers founded the Law and Justice party in 2001.

China has replaced the most powerful official in its western region of Xinjiang, where ethnic violence left nearly 200 people dead last July.

Wang Lequan, who had served as secretary of the Communist Party in Xinjiang since 1994, was replaced by Zhang Chunxian, state media say.

Mr Wang was appointed to a new post in the Chinese Communist Party.

No reason was given for the move but analysts note there was much public anger over his handling of the riots.

China reported that most of the those killed in the riots were from the Han Chinese community. Order was only restored after soldiers were deployed to the region’s main city, Urumqi.